Preview of the Bandon 10k...Sun 28th Oct 2012

The next race locally is the Bandon 10k next Sunday (28th Oct 2012) at 1pm. Starting in the town of Bandon itself, the race is mostly run on quiet country roads to the south-east.

Directions........Please note that if you are coming from Cork City, there are road works on the south link road due to the removal of the pedestrian bridge. You should allow extra time for any delays. As you enter Bandon, take the relief road left at the first roundabout. Follow the direction for Clonakilty and this will take you to the local Gaelscoil...see map below.

Gaelscoil is just off the relief road near the top of the hill

Registration....There is plenty of parking at the Gaelscoil. Registration opens at 10.30am. The entry fee is €10.


ENTRY FEE: Adult €10, Children €5
EMAIL: bandon10k@gmail.com

Walk.......The walk starts at 12:30pm from the Gaelscoil. Walkers have the option of doing the short route or the full route if they feel up to it. Note that there is also a 0.85 mile walk from the finish line back to the Gaelscoil so take that into account also.

Course......The race starts in the town itself, about 700 metres from the Gaelscoil...just down the hill and left and down to Market Steet.

As you can see from the photo, the start just across the road from the steps up to the church. Once the race starts, you veer right and west. The course here is flat as it runs parallel to the river. Then it's left over a bridge, past the GAA grounds and the start of a long climb which is about 1.2 kms in length.

Passing the GAA grounds

Leaving the town, the climb continues

A tough first mile. At 1.2 miles, you turn off left....

...and from here, the road begins to level off and it gets easier. Pretty soon, you are at the highest point of this particular part of the race......

........and you begin a long downhill run to the crossroads just after the 2 mile mark.

At this junction, the walkers go straight ahead. For the runners, they turn off right and start a long climb which lasts about 1.5 miles.

Turn off left at approx 2.8 miles

The climb finishes near this junction at approx 3.5 mile miles

From there, the road eases off and at approx 4 miles, the road begins to fall away slowly...

This is one of the main features of this race. The last 2 miles are a gradual downhill and are very fast.

At 5 miles, you pass the junction where the walkers will rejoin the course...

The finishing section from here is the same as the usual 5 mile race course. The last mile goes through a winding valley and finishes at the next junction...

From the finish line, it is 0.85 miles back to the Gaelscoil. Go up the hill via the relief road, not back through the town.

Overall.......A 10k race run on quiet country roads to the south-east of Bandon. The last two miles of the race are very fast but the trick is to keep something in reserve so that you can exploit it. Remember that there are two long climbs in the first half of the race. If you can do these at a steady pace rather than flat out then you should get a good time overall.